Safety requirements now require that manufacturers of various devices provide means to protect users of their devices from injury incurred as a result of such use. Toward this end, many manufacturers of tools are now placing shields and other protective devices on their new products or are offering such devices for retrofitting to their older models. One tool which has a great potential to cause injury to its users from flying debris is the rotary scraper or stripper of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,294, Thompson. This device comprises a central hub with a shaft for mounting in the chuck of a power drill and a plurality of pivot shafts arranged around the hub around which wire fingers are wound. The fingers project beyond the periphery of the hub to strike a work surface at a lagging angle and thereby remove material such as paint, varnish, or the like, from the work surface.
As a result of the high rotary speed imparted by the power drill to the tool, debris from the work surface is thrown upwards and may cause injury to the user. Accordingly, it has been desired to provide strippers and other rotary driven tools with protective shields to restrict the trajectory of flying debris. Examples of such shields on rotary strippers and scrapers are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,094, Comstock; No. 3,510,989, Tolle; and No. 3,731,338, Walsh, et al.
These patents disclose scrapers, chippers and abrasive tools which are driven in a rotary manner by an apparatus, such as a power drill, on which the tools are mounted. In each case, the shield is an integral part of the tool which is not readily removable therefrom and which must be separately steadied by the user thereby leaving the user only one hand to steady the power drill and control the action of the torque induced by the drill. For example, the chipper of Comstock comprises a plurality of flexible chains attached to a rotary hub shaft so as to flail against a work surface. The shield comprises a semicylindrical wall with ends in which the hub shaft is journaled. A handle is provided extending upward from the semicylindrical wall to be grasped by one hand while the other hand holds the power drill. Similarly, Tolle discloses a portable abrasive tool comprising a drum on a shaft which is mountable in the chuck of a power drill for rotary operation. A semicylindrical shield is provided along the length of the drum and has a knob extending from the shield for grasping and steadying the tool. Walsh, et al., disclose a mechanical paint scraper in which the scraping face is transverse to the axis of rotation and a handle extends radially to the axis of the driving shaft. This handle is grasped separately from the electric drill used to power the tool.
Thus, in each of the above patents, the rotary tool and its shield are separately handled apart from the power drill which drives the tool. Since the power drill is a high speed rotary device, it sets up a torque which must be countered by an opposite force exerted by the user. In the case of a power drill which is being used to drive a rotary stripper of the Thompson type, it is much easier to control the action of both the drill and the tool if the user can keep both hands on the drill with one hand on the drill handle and the other hand over the body of the drill. The prior art stripper and shield combinations do not permit this. Furthermore, it is desirable to have a shield construction which can be readily adapted to be retrofitted onto existing rotary stripper tools.